The “Expelled Because of Color” monument, located near the Capitol Avenue entrance of the Georgia State Capitol, was dedicated to the 33 original African-American Georgia legislators who were elected during the Reconstruction period.
In the first election after the Civil War (1868), African-American men, including those formerly enslaved, were allowed to vote. There was no law, however, that allowed Black representatives to hold office, so the 33 black men who were elected to the General Assembly were expelled. Another African-American was not to be elected to the Georgia legislature until 1963.
The construction was funded by the Black Caucus of the Georgia General Assembly, which was founded in 1975. They commissioned this monument a year later. Their names are listed on one of the accompanying plaques:
Another plaque describes the meaning of the monument:
